Hospice News

OCTOBER 9, 2023

Calls have grown louder for an overhauled design of the Medicare Hospice Benefit, but the path towards change is riddled with contrasting views over regulation, policy and payment structures. One part of the issue is that hospice reimbursement has not kept pace with evolving patient needs, Grant said.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 8, 2024

The home health and hospice provider New Day Healthcare has acquired Texas-based Compassion Hospice for an undisclosed amount. The company’s nearly 6,500 employees serve close to 100,000 patients annually across all of its business lines, including home health, hospice, pediatrics, clinical decision support and personal care.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 19, 2024

on Wednesday, which will likely have an impact on hospice M&A. Interest rates have widespread implications for the hospice mergers and acquisitions market, particularly when it comes to private equity investments. The reduction marks the first rate cut since 2020. The Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 0.5% in 2022 to 2.5%

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Hospice News

MARCH 25, 2024

Arizona-based Stoneridge Hospice launched services in 2020 with an aim to address a swelling aging population’s growing need for end-of-life care. Stoneridge Hospice provides home-based hospice and also contracts with other providers to offer facility-based services. Stoneridge Hospice launched in 2020.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 13, 2024

Quality, compliance and financial stability are top of mind in hospice merger and acquisitions (M&A) as this year comes to an end. Growing demand is among the constants driving investor interest in the hospice space, according to Tom Lillis, partner at the Kentucky-based firm Stoneridge Partners Strategic Consulting.

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Hospice News

MAY 28, 2024

Stoneridge Hospice has opened a new palliative care branch in Scottsdale, Arizona. “Our decision to establish a palliative care branch in Scottsdale aligns with our mission to provide comfort, dignity and support to individuals and families during challenging times,” said Patti Brazel, executive director at Stoneridge Hospice.

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Hospice News

JUNE 19, 2024

Silverstone came on the scene in 2020 as a standalone hospice after CEO Alfonso Montiel’s purchase and rebranding of Comfort Care Hospice in the Dallas-Fort Worth region. Every service line, whether acquired or from scratch, we had mapped and anticipated its synchronization within the whole,” Montiel told Hospice News.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 5, 2024

Recent years have seen an uptick in consolidation activity among nonprofits in the hospice space. To achieve these kinds of growth, hospices must consider whether they should affiliate or buy another company outright. In the intervening months, Hope Hospice also joined the transaction.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 30, 2023

A rising number of hospices have undergone name changes in recent years, prompting many to consider the elements of an effective rebranding strategy. Hospices should avoid brand names that are too generic or that focus on one particular service line or portion of their geographic footprint.

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Hospice News

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

Given the critical role of family caregivers in home-based care, hospices have a vested interest in expanding their access to support. And while hospices offer social workers and spiritual care, many families continue to have unmet needs that could impede some patients’ access to hospice.

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Hospice News

JULY 30, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has unveiled its final 2025 hospice rule, which includes a 2.9% The increase represents an estimated $790 million rise in total hospice payments compared to Fiscal Year (FY) 2024. The finalized hospice cap amount for FY 2025 is $34,465.34, up from $33,494.01 this year. “The

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Hospice News

MAY 8, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should beef up hospice oversight, including addressing overdue surveys. To date, CMS has fully implemented five and partially implemented three of eight provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA), though quality issues persist in the hospice space.

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Hospice News

MAY 1, 2023

On June 1, LifeTouch Hospice will merge with Arkansas Hospice. Both hospices are owned and operated by the SHARE Foundation, a nonprofit, faith-based organization. The hospice last year served 430 patients in a five-county region of Arkansas. Meanwhile, Arkansas Hospice has fared better.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 7, 2023

Allowing patients to receive concurrent hospice and curative care reduces health care costs and improves quality. Initially slated to complete in 2020, CMS later extended it until December 2021. We really didn’t find subgroups that were not benefiting from the model,” Kranker told Hospice News. “We

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 22, 2023

Many seniors have experienced some form of trauma or abuse in their lifetime, which can carry impacts for those both delivering and receiving hospice care. This is the first of a two-part series that will examine the challenges that hospice patients and employees face related to abuse and trauma experiences and how providers respond.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 8, 2023

The durable medical equipment (DME) provider National HME has acquired Hospice Source, also a DME company. The Texas-based company developed its Hospice Cloud Pro technology platform to facilitate consolidated equipment ordering and provide clients with data on utilization, cost trends, and network management for reporting and analytics. “We

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Hospice News

JANUARY 8, 2024

Private equity firms in the hospice space are adapting their “roll-up” strategies as economic uncertainties persist. While PE firms are not abandoning the hospice space, they are slowing their momentum, according to Mark Kulik, senior managing director for the M&A advisory firm The Braff Group.

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Hospice News

MAY 2, 2022

Without assistance or relief, these difficulties can impede access to hospice. Research has shown that patients who are faced with end-of-life decisions may be less likely to choose hospice unless they have a network of friends or family who can serve as home caregivers. This only worsened during COVID-19.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 23, 2024

Julia Hospice & Palliative Refuels De Novo Plans Pennsylvania-based Julia Hospice & Palliative (JHPC) has reignited plans to launch a de novo after experiencing pandemic-related setbacks. Dubbed Julia House, the facility will provide inpatient hospice and serve as an outpatient palliative care clinic.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 6, 2024

health care is moving steadily towards value-based reimbursement, and having a robust palliative care program can help hospices ensure they are not left behind. This may be even more the case now that the hospice component of the value-based insurance design model (VBID), often called the Medicare Advantage Hospice Carve-In, is ending on Dec.

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Hospice News

MAY 9, 2024

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on continuing evidence of hospice fraud and quality issues. We must urgently address the bad actors who are abusing the hospice benefit and harming patients and families,” the legislators wrote in the letter. “We Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas) and Earl Blumenaur (D-Ore.) Yesterday, the U.S.

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Hospice News

DECEMBER 14, 2022

seen in 2020, with the slowdown largely attributed to reduced spending on COVID-19 support, including Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans and the Provider Relief Fund (PRF). These sources continue to provide funding in 2021, but at much lower levels and in 2020.”. in 2020, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Hospices tend to see an increase in dementia patient admissions as well as home-based utilization following an acquisition by a private equity firm or a publicly traded company. After an acquisition by a public company, hospices saw a 1.4% A little more than 20% of hospice decedents in 2020 suffered from dementia, up from 18.5%

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Hospice News

JULY 14, 2022

Margin pressures from the proposed cuts to Medicare home health rates could impact palliative care and hospice. The agency cited budget neutrality requirements to explain the cuts, as well as adjustments related to the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), a new payment system introduced in 2020. pay hike for hospice care in 2023.

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Hospice News

OCTOBER 10, 2024

Cameron Muir has been named as the new CMO of the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI). His new title signals the organization’s strategic plans to reshape hospice care delivery through patient-centered, innovative approaches, according to NPHI CEO Tom Koutsoumpas.

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Hospice News

JANUARY 3, 2023

Kathy Hochul (D) has vetoed legislation that would have effectively banned new, for-profit hospices in the state. It would have prohibited the establishment of for-profit hospices in New York state and forbid current for-profit operators from increasing capacity. . Utah had the highest rate at 60.7%.

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Hospice News

JULY 12, 2022

More hospice and palliative care providers are pursuing joint ventures with hospitals and health systems. There’s a lot of patients that fall through the cracks because there’s not that longitudinal model of care that’s really in place,” Stein said at the Hospice News Palliative Care Conference. It’s going both ways.”.

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Hospice News

MARCH 14, 2024

Hospices, in aggregate, are showing improvement on the quality measure for visits in the last days of life. In Calendar Year 2021, the share of hospice care days with nurse visits in the last seven days of life rose to 63%, up from 62% year over year, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO).

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Hospice News

SEPTEMBER 24, 2024

Traditions Health Names SVP of Hospice Operations Traditions Health has appointed Tom Moreland as its new senior vice president of hospice operations. Franklin, Tennessee-headquartered Traditions provides hospice, home health and palliative care as well as consulting services across 18 states.

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Hospice News

NOVEMBER 11, 2024

Texas-based New Day Healthcare LLC on Monday announced its acquisition of Intrepid USA’s hospice operations in Missouri and in its home state. The deal includes Intrepid’s hospice assets in Joplin and Springfield, Missouri, as well as its locations in Beaumont, Texas. Hospice utilization rates hovered at 49.1% Census Bureau.

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Hospice News

JULY 2, 2024

Stakeholders and advocacy organizations recently collaborated to develop stronger trauma-informed care delivery guidelines that help hospices better address violence, abuse and neglect among serious and terminally ill populations. These victims often suffer in silence, and we need to pay better attention to their issues.”

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Hospice News

JANUARY 31, 2024

The Texas-based home health and hospice company VitalCaring Group was built largely through acquisitions, and the company expects to step up that strategy in 2024 with an emphasis on hospice. The big question mark right now is what home health and hospice multiples are going to look like. Not a lot right now.

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Hospice News

JUNE 6, 2022

Physician burnout costs hospices — both literally and figuratively — whether it occurs among their own medical staff or with their referral partners. This not only contributes to hospices’ own labor shortages, but disrupts relationships with other providers. A ripple effect on hospice. Burnout takes a heavy toll.

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Hospice News

MARCH 8, 2024

Tightened regulation in the hospice space has led to longer, more stringent diligence processes when it comes to buying and selling provider companies. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has honed in on hospice program integrity through a number of new regulations, including some in the agency’s 2024 hospice final rule.

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Hospice News

AUGUST 22, 2024

Hospice transactions are facing a new world of challenges during a time when M&A activity is projected to ramp up after recent lulls. More founders who began their organizations when the Medicare Hospice Benefit was established in the 1980s are reaching retirement. Who’s going to receive the proceeds?

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Hospice News

AUGUST 7, 2024

Hospice reimbursement trends influence palliative care payment and delivery. Among the significant changes coming this year is the end of the hospice component of the value-based insurance design (VBID) model, as of Dec. The North Carolina-based hospice, home health and palliative care provider is part of the Liberty Health system. “The

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Hospice News

MAY 16, 2022

CVS Health Corporation (NYSE: CVS) subsidiary Aetna has selected Ohio’s Hospice and Pure Healthcare as part of the insurance company’s hospice and palliative care preferred provider network for Value-Based Insurance Design (VBID) in the Buckeye State. The collaborative began with three hospice members and now includes 11 organizations.

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